Article 15 GDPR

← Article 15 - Right of access by the data subject →
Chapter 1: General provisions Article 1: Subject-matter and objectives Article 2: Material scope Article 3: Territorial scope Article 4: Definitions Chapter 2: Principles Article 5: Principles relating to processing of personal data Article 6: Lawfulness of processing Article 7: Conditions for consent Article 8: Conditions applicable to child’s consent in relation to information society services Article 9: Processing of special categories of personal data Article 10: Processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences Article 11: Processing which does not require identification Chapter 3: Rights of the data subject Article 12: Transparent information, communication and modalities for the exercise of the rights of the data subject Article 13: Information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject Article 14: Information to be provided where personal data have not been obtained from the data subject Article 15: Right of access by the data subject Article 16: Right to rectification Article 17: Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’) Article 18: Right to restriction of processing Article 19: Notification obligation regarding rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing Article 20: Right to data portability Article 21: Right to object Article 22: Automated individual decision-making, including profiling Article 23: Restrictions Chapter 4: Controller and processor Article 24: Responsibility of the controller Article 25: Data protection by design and by default Article 26: Joint controllers Article 27: Representatives of controllers or processors not established in the Union Article 28: Processor Article 29: Processing under the authority of the controller or processor Article 30: Records of processing activities Article 31: Cooperation with the supervisory authority Article 32: Security of processing Article 33: Notification of a personal data breach to the supervisory authority Article 34: Communication of a personal data breach to the data subject Article 35: Data protection impact assessment Article 36: Prior consultation Article 37: Designation of the data protection officer Article 38: Position of the data protection officer Article 39: Tasks of the data protection officer Article 40: Codes of conduct Article 41: Monitoring of approved codes of conduct Article 42: Certification Article 43: Certification bodies Chapter 5: Transfers of personal data Article 44: General principle for transfers Article 45: Transfers on the basis of an adequacy decision Article 46: Transfers subject to appropriate safeguards Article 47: Binding corporate rules Article 48: Transfers or disclosures not authorised by Union law Article 49: Derogations for specific situations Article 50: International cooperation for the protection of personal data Chapter 6: Supervisory authorities Article 51: Supervisory authority Article 52: Independence Article 53: General conditions for the members of the supervisory authority Article 54: Rules on the establishment of the supervisory authority Article 55: Competence Article 56: Competence of the lead supervisory authority Article 57: Tasks Article 58: Powers Article 59: Activity reports Chapter 7: Cooperation and consistency Article 60: Cooperation between the lead supervisory authority and the other supervisory authorities concerned Article 61: Mutual assistance Article 62: Joint operations of supervisory authorities Article 63: Consistency mechanism Article 64: Opinion of the Board Article 65: Dispute resolution by the Board Article 66: Urgency procedure Article 67: Exchange of information Article 68: European Data Protection Board Article 69: Independence Article 70: Tasks of the Board Article 71: Reports Article 72: Procedure Article 73: Chair Article 74: Tasks of the Chair Article 75: Secretariat Article 76: Confidentiality Chapter 8: Remedies, liability and penalties Article 77: Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority Article 78: Right to an effective judicial remedy against a supervisory authority Article 79: Right to an effective judicial remedy against a controller or processor Article 80: Representation of data subjects Article 81: Suspension of proceedings Article 82: Right to compensation and liability Article 83: General conditions for imposing administrative fines Article 84: Penalties Chapter 9: Specific processing situations Article 85: Processing and freedom of expression and information Article 86: Processing and public access to official documents Article 87: Processing of the national identification number Article 88: Processing in the context of employment Article 89: Safeguards and derogations relating to processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes Article 90: Obligations of secrecy Article 91: Existing data protection rules of churches and religious associations Chapter 10: Delegated and implementing acts Article 92: Exercise of the delegation Article 93: Committee procedure Chapter 11: Final provisions Article 94: Repeal of Directive 95: /46: /EC Article 95: Relationship with Directive 20: 02: /58: /EC Article 96: Relationship with previously concluded Agreements Article 97: Commission reports Article 98: Review of other Union legal acts on data protection Article 99: Entry into force and application

Legal Text

Article 15 - Right of access by the data subject

1. The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning him or her are being processed, and, where that is the case, access to the personal data and the following information:

(a) the purposes of the processing;

(b) the categories of personal data concerned;

(c) the recipients or categories of recipient to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed, in particular recipients in third countries or international organisations;

(d) where possible, the envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored, or, if not possible, the criteria used to determine that period;

(e) the existence of the right to request from the controller rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing of personal data concerning the data subject or to object to such processing;

(f) the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority;

(g) where the personal data are not collected from the data subject, any available information as to their source

(h) the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, referred to in Article 22(1) and (4) and, at least in those cases, meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for the data subject.

2. Where personal data are transferred to a third country or to an international organisation, the data subject shall have the right to be informed of the appropriate safeguards pursuant to Article 46 relating to the transfer.

3. The controller shall provide a copy of the personal data undergoing processing. For any further copies requested by the data subject, the controller may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs. Where the data subject makes the request by electronic means, and unless otherwise requested by the data subject, the information shall be provided in a commonly used electronic form.

4. The right to obtain a copy referred to in paragraph 3 shall not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.

Relevant Recitals

Recital 58: Modalities for Transparent Information Provision

The principle of transparency requires that any information addressed to the public or to the data subject be concise, easily accessible and easy to understand, and that clear and plain language and, additionally, where appropriate, visualisation be used. Such information could be provided in electronic form, for example, when addressed to the public, through a website. This is of particular relevance in situations where the proliferation of actors and the technological complexity of practice make it difficult for the data subject to know and understand whether, by whom and for what purpose personal data relating to him or her are being collected, such as in the case of online advertising. Given that children merit specific protection, any information and communication, where processing is addressed to a child, should be in such a clear and plain language that the child can easily understand.

Recital 59: Modalities for Facilitating Data Subject Rights

Modalities should be provided for facilitating the exercise of the data subject's rights under this Regulation, including mechanisms to request and, if applicable, obtain, free of charge, in particular, access to and rectification or erasure of personal data and the exercise of the right to object. The controller should also provide means for requests to be made electronically, especially where personal data are processed by electronic means. The controller should be obliged to respond to requests from the data subject without undue delay and at the latest within one month and to give reasons where the controller does not intend to comply with any such requests.

Recital 63: Modalities and Scope of Right of Access

A data subject should have the right of access to personal data which have been collected concerning him or her, and to exercise that right easily and at reasonable intervals, in order to be aware of, and verify, the lawfulness of the processing. This includes the right for data subjects to have access to data concerning their health, for example the data in their medical records containing information such as diagnoses, examination results, assessments by treating physicians and any treatment or interventions provided. Every data subject should therefore have the right to know and obtain communication in particular with regard to the purposes for which the personal data are processed, where possible the period for which the personal data are processed, the recipients of the personal data, the logic involved in any automatic personal data processing and, at least when based on profiling, the consequences of such processing. Where possible, the controller should be able to provide remote access to a secure system which would provide the data subject with direct access to his or her personal data. That right should not adversely affect the rights or freedoms of others, including trade secrets or intellectual property and in particular the copyright protecting the software. However, the result of those considerations should not be a refusal to provide all information to the data subject. Where the controller processes a large quantity of information concerning the data subject, the controller should be able to request that, before the information is delivered, the data subject specify the information or processing activities to which the request relates.

Recital 64: Identity Verification

The controller should use all reasonable measures to verify the identity of a data subject who requests access, in particular in the context of online services and online identifiers. A controller should not retain personal data for the sole purpose of being able to react to potential requests.

Commentary on Article 15

Article 15 GDPR provides the data subjects the right to access their personal data. The right is divided in three parts: the right to receive confirmation whether personal data is being processed, the right to receive a copy of one’s personal data, and the right to receive additional information on the processing of personal data.

Additionally, the right to access can be considered to be the other side of the coin of the right to be informed from Articles 13 and 14 GDPR. While the right to be informed refers to information about the processing provided a priori and in a general sense, the right to access refers to a more specific information provided a posteriori. As remarked by Ehmann, the right to access is also a first step for the exercise of further rights, as well as a means for data subjects to verify the accuracy of their data and the compliance of the processing with the GDPR.

The right to access, as opposed to the obligation to inform from Articles 13 and 14 – that imposes a proactive obligation to the controller –, requires an action from the data subject, that shall make an request to the controller. This access request does not necessarily need to fulfil any formalities, but rather show clearly the intention of the data subject to access their personal data.

The right to access can only be exercised by the data subjects themselves, as well as by any legal representative of the data subject as regulated by national law, since there is no specific reference about the matter in the GDPR.

The right must be exercised against the controller, who is responsible for its compliance. According to Zanfir-Fortuna, the controller could also have an agreement with the processor, in the form of a data protection agreement or any other type of contract, to directly handle the access request of personal data in the possession of the processor. The access request may also be exercised against any of the joint controllers, in case there is more than one, as both have the same obligations with regards to data subject’s rights, according to Article 36 GDPR.

Pursuant to Article 12(3) GDPR, the controller has to answer the access request “without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request”. This deadline may be extended two months when the request is complex or when the data subject has exercised multiple rights. Any extension of the deadline must be communicated to the data subject, along for the reasons for it, according to Paragraph 4 of the same Article.

The data subject does not need to justify in any way the reasons for requesting their personal data. The controller may, however, ask the data subject to specify what processing activities the request relates to, as laid down by Recital 63. Nonetheless, according to Zanfir-Fortuna, if the data subject requests access to all their personal data, the controller will have to comply with the request. Such approach is supported by, among others, the text of Recital 58, that emphasizes the importance of this right in cases such as online advertising, where the data subject may not even know what types of processing activities are carried out, due to the technological complexity of the practice and the proliferation of actors.

This is, however, controversial. For example, the District Court of Northern Holland has held that where a data subject makes a non-specific, generally formulated access request to a data controller processing a large quantity of personal data, it is reasonable to expect the data controller to perform a search for the "most common" personal data (such as name, address, and social security number), in its "most common" data files and/or computer systems or applications.

As provided by Article 64 and Article 12(6), the controller shall also take the necessary steps to verify the identity of the data subject, since the disclosure of personal data to a different person could qualify as a data breach. However, the controller shall only ask for proof of identity when there is reasonable doubt; the controller shall not use this requirement to hinder the exercise of the right. For example, when the data subject exercises the right from the same email as the email from which they provided their personal data on the first place, there shall be no doubt as for their identity. Requiring proof of the data subject’s identity without a reasonable doubt would also be a breach of the data minimization principle, since the data requested for it, such as a copy of an ID, would not be necessary.

Hindering the exercise of the right to access is, overall, a violation of the GDPR, as held by the Dutch DPA, regardless the way in which it is carried out, e.g. by charging a fee for the access or the copy of the data or by obliging the data subject to exercise the right via a complicated procedure or means. The right shall be free to exercise, and shall not entail any unnecessary burden.

The controller must be able to demonstrate compliance, and therefore shall provide the answer in writing. Furthermore, Article 15(3) specifies that where the data subject makes the request by electronic means, and unless otherwise requested by the data subject, the information shall be provided in a commonly used electronic form. The provision of electronic means is not, however, an obligation for the controller. Nevertheless, Recital 63 expressly indicates that, where possible, the controller should be able to provide remote access to a secure system which would provide the data subject with direct access to their personal data; therefore, encouraging the controller to facilitate the exercise of access requests.

However, the controller may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on the request where requests from a data subject are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because of their repetitive character, in accordance with Article 12(5). For example, the District Court of Limburg has ruled that submitting unclear access requests to controllers with the sole purpose of initiating procedures to collect damages from these controllers when their responses to their requests were delayed constitutes an abuse of the right. Anyhow, and according to the same Article, the controller shall bear the burden of demonstrating the manifestly unfounded or excessive character of the request.

(1) Right to receive confirmation about the processing

The starting point of the right to access is the right to receive a confirmation about whether one’s own personal data are being processed. This shall be done even when no personal data is processed, in the form of a negative confirmation. The Italian DPA has stated that the controller should comply with the same requirements regarding the confirmation of the processing regardless the confirmation is positive or negative. Therefore, even if the controller is not processing any personal data of the data subject, it shall provide such answer in writing and via the appropriate means.

(1) Right to receive additional information about the processing

The controller is obliged to provide the data subject certain additional information about the processing contained in Article 15(1), letters a) to h). This obligation partially overlaps with the information to be provided under Articles 13 and 14. However, it is to be understood that the logic of this provision allows the data subject to ask for a more granular and specific information than the generic information provided under Articles 13 and 14. Therefore, the data subject may request specific information about certain processing activities, and shall be entitled to receive a more extensive answer on them, as compared to the already provided information from the mentioned Articles 13 and 14.

The additional information entails, namely: the purposes of the processing; the categories of personal data concerned; the recipients or categories of recipient to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed, in particular recipients in third countries or international organisations; where possible, the envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored, or, if not possible, the criteria used to determine that period; the existence of the right to request from the controller rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing of personal data concerning the data subject or to object to such processing; the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority; where the personal data are not collected from the data subject, any available information as to their source; and the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, referred to in Article 22(1) and (4) and, at least in those cases, meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for the data subject.

Regarding the information about recipients and categories of recipients, there is debate on whether the controller shall provide the name of each recipient or rather only the categories of recipients. At the moment, a preliminary ruling is pending before the CJEU on whether Article 15(1)(c) GDPR requires the controller to name concrete recipients of the data (rather than just categories of recipients) if the data has already been disclosed to recipients.

In this regard, the A29WP, in their Guidelines on Transparency under the GDPR, has stated that, in accordance with the principle of fairness, controllers must provide information on the recipients that is most meaningful for data subjects. The Guidelines already indicate that, in practice, the general obligation of information will generally include the named recipients, so that data subjects know exactly who has their personal data. If controllers opt to provide the categories of recipients, the information should be as specific as possible by indicating the type of recipient (i.e. by reference to the activities it carries out), the industry, sector and sub-sector and the location of the recipients. However, given the more specific nature of Article 15, this may be interpreted as an obligation of the controllers to disclose the name of the particular recipients if the data subject requests so.

Additionally, it may also be inferred from the wording of Article 19 (“The controller shall inform the data subject about those recipients if the data subject requests it”) that the legislator intends to enable the data subject to have access to this information, since it is in their interest to know who is processing their personal data.

With respect to automated decision making, the Austrian DPA has held that the right to access under Article 15(1)(h) GDPR applies to all kinds of profiling rather than only to automated decision making under Article 22(1) and (4) GDPR. Additionally, in the same decision the DPA stated that the protection of a trade secret should form an exception to the complainants' right to obtaining such information. For more information about Article 22, please go to: Article 22 GDPR. The additional information also includes, as provided by Article 15(2), information about the appropriate safeguards pursuant to international transfers of data from Article 46, where personal data are transferred to a third country or to an international organisation. The EDPB has remarked in this regard the importance of transparency and information provided to the data subjects.

(3) Right to receive a copy of the personal data

According to Article 15(3), the controller is obliged to provide the data subject “a copy of the personal data undergoing processing”. As opposed to Directive 95/46/EC, under the GDPR the data subject is entitled to a copy of such personal data. A summary of it, for example, is not enough. However, it is not possible either to request personal data that does not already exist and that must be expressly generated, such as a detailed medical report. In this sense, there is also debate on what is to be considered personal data and, therefore, is included in the right to access. For example, the District Court of Amsterdam has held that internal notes or tags are not to be treated as personal data for these purposes, since they may not be checked for its accuracy. However, the District Court of Gelderland has ruled, to the contrary, that internal notes and communication between employees containing name, address and information about the interviews themselves, but also information about their non-verbal communication, use of voice, notes his answers to specific questions and tracks how these answers change over time, reflect on the aspects of the data subject’s personality and how they think, and are hence personal data to be provided under Article 15. In a similar sense, the Regional Labour Court of the Land Baden-Württemberg in Germany has stated that the right to access includes information about personal performance and behavioural data in possession of employer.

Additionally, as stated by Article 15(3), for further copies requested by the data subject, the controller may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs.

(4) Rights and freedoms of others

Furthermore, according to Article 15(4), the right to obtain a copy shall not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others. Some examples of possible clashes between rights, as provided by Recital 63, may be trade secrets or intellectual property, in particular the copyright protecting the software. This may also be problematic in the case of, e.g., camera footages, in which more than one person may be shown. Nonetheless, as remarked by the recital, this shall not be an excuse to deny the right to access. A solution for this could be blurring the images so other persons are not recognisable on them, as advised by DPAs, for example, when the angle of a camera results in an excessive processing of data, contrary to the minimization principle.

Decisions

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